And Then There Were Three
by Rikku Love
Summary: Laura Corrigan has just landed the job of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, but when a familiar looking first year boy walks into class, she is reminded of her unfortunate past and hatches a plot to get back with a man she once loved.
1. In and Out of the Fire

**And Then There Were Three**

**Disclaimer:** All of Hogwarts and the magical universe, first and foremost, belongs to J.K. Rowling and not me. The only things that do belong to me are various non-canon characters who may or may not impact this story directly, and of course Laura Corrigan, my original character and protagonist of this story.

**A/N:** DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS! This is my first attempt at writing on FanFiction in a long, long time so I am very modest and unenthusiastic about everything that I write. I hope you all like it and don't grow to hate my OC, Laura. She isn't the nicest person ever, she's certainly got her flaws, but I've tried to flesh her out into a deep person. Almost every canon character from the books will show up at one point or another, especially Harry, George Weasley, Oliver Wood, Cho Chang, Teddy Lupin, and Minerva McGonagall. I also am lazy and do not like to proofread. I've run a spell check through the document, so I apologize for any odd grammatical errors. My spell check also kept changing my typo of "disappeared" into "spearfished", and it took me about an hour to set it straight... so sorry if it's reversed without my knowing. Enjoy!

**In and Out of the Fire**

"Incendio," I said.

The lamp sitting on my desk burst into flames and the room was immediately illuminated. The first year students, who were chattering happily until my arrival, had dropped their voices to whispers and most watched the lamp with most intense curiosity. The class was the largest I had ever seen, the Gryffindor students sat to the right of my desk and the Slytherins were to my left.

As I walked up the gap between where Gryffindor and Slytherin separated themselves, my oversized black cloak trailed along the floor behind me for a few inches. My jet black hair was tied up into a ponytail, causing most of the Muggle-born students to become perplexed: rather than using a scrunchie or hair band, I had magically fixed the hair into its position.

Once I had reached my desk, I turned around to face the dozens of first years. My pearly blue eyes surveyed them carefully. They looked almost frightened, though I wasn't sure if it was because of me or of Hogwarts in general. I turned back around so that my back was to all of them, and walked to the blackboard.

"My name," I started, picking up chalk and beginning to write it on the board. I tried my best to conceal my normal tone and accent. "Is Professor... Corrigan." I began writing below my name. "You are studying Defense... Against... the Dark... Arts." I laid the piece of chalk down and clapped my hands together so that they were cleansed. I was now facing the students once more. "You will learn to protect yourself from dark magic: these include various spells, curses, hexes, jinxes, and charms, as well as protection against dark creatures such as Dementors. But that won't be until later in your Hogwarts career. Much later. Copy the definitions." My wand was pointed at the blackboard. "Depulso!"

I heard groans from amongst the first years as the board laid out definitions and examples of such terms as, "Dark Arts", and "Counter spell". I couldn't help but feel a grin emerging. Most students were at it for ten minutes, though some were quick or had simply shortened the definitions (I had made them quite lengthy). I took the idle fumbling of quills to mean they were finished.

"Well, now that that's done, I think you all can take your wands out," I said. There was a sudden uproar of excited whispering. Chances were that this was the first class in which they'd be practicing anything in yet. I had immediate flashbacks to when I had dreaded listening to Professor Flitwick talk about the importance and use of charms in life. "Don't get too excited, it's only one spell. You all go on and stand up, stand across from the person next to you. Oh girls, there's nothing wrong with the bloke sitting next to you." Many of the girls had looked mortified at the boy they had sat with. "This is something I actually didn't learn until my second year."

It took almost half of the class period to ensure that everyone had gotten the hand motions right before they were allowed to practice. Being a rather patient person, I didn't mind going to each individual student and, for a few, actually guiding their hand.

"Alright, I think we've got it," I said once I was satisfied with their progress. "Now honestly, it might not work. I didn't really get the hang of it until my fourth or fifth try, you'd be surprised. Are we ready? On the count of three now, then. One-"

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Someone's wand flew up into the air, and the caster shrieked with laughter. My eyes locked onto him, he was of an average height, with interestingly colored hair. It was a light shade of blue and he wore it so that his eyes were barely exposed. Those around him suddenly chanted, "EXPELLIARMUS!" and a few kids either lost their wands into the air or had their arm knocked backwards with a tight force.

There was a murmur of satisfaction and the Gryffindors flocked to interrogate the blue haired boy on his advanced techniques, while the Slytherins laid back and grunted to themselves. I squeezed through the pack of lions and found myself facing the boy's back.

"Hmm, Mr. Lupin I presume," I said.

The rowdy boy's hair moved about a bit, by itself, and slowly grew darker until it was as black as my own. When he turned around, the arrogance and joy he had been showing seemed to be replaced by a subtle coolness towards me.

"I quite miss your godfather. We've lost touch. Why don't we go... drop in?" I grabbed his hand and tugged him towards my desk. He didn't speak, though showed no signs of being nervous or intimidated. "I think that it will be at least another month before this class is mature enough to practice magic. Don't you, Mr. Lupin?"

He glanced down at his feet and shifted them around.

"Don't you?" I asked again.

"No," he replied quietly. His classmates eagerly looked on. I dropped to my knees, and they made a loud noise when they collided with the cold floor. I paid no attention to any pain. I was at his level, and I violently grabbed him and made sure that he was looking me straight in the eye.

"Well," I whispered. "I guess it's a good thing that we're going to listen to me then, and not you." Still on my knees, I looked at the other students. "This is not how I operate. I'm hear to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, first and foremost. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends." I pushed myself off the ground and wiped dirt off of my cloak. "But my friends will listen and respect me. If you make sure to heed my commands, we shouldn't have to bar magic from class for a month. Don't you want to be my friend, Mr. Lupin?"

This was surely not the class anyone had expected. They were foolish children, only eleven years old, but I was a strict woman ever since I lost Harry Potter and almost all of my friends, with the lone exception of Cho Chang, but it wasn't like she talked to any of the old crew at all anyway so I always felt so uninformed.

"Now maybe you all can take our class today as a guideline for your expectations at Hogwarts," I suggested. "I'm possibly the nicest teacher you'll have today. You see, you haven't met Professor McGonagall yet I presume, nor Madame Hooch or Professor Firenze- oh, not that you can take his class yet. Now if Theodore-"

"_Don't_ call me that," I heard him mutter under his breath. His hair was turning red.

"If Theodore Remus Lupin wishes to apologize for disobeying me, and apparently wishing to overrule my authority during the very first lesson, then I may be willing to go on being a 'cool' professor. Well, Mr. Lupin?"

He didn't answer.

"I guess it's no defensive magic for a long, long time then," I said. Almost all faces were disappointed, and Teddy's hair stayed fiery red. "You really must have taken much from the Black side of your family. Class is dismissed early- I advise you all make haste in finding out where to go within the castle. Except for my friend, of course."

The students scurried out quickly.

"Let's get some floo powder then, shall we?"

I led Teddy to my office. He was in silence the entire trip.

"At least you're not taking me to my grams," Teddy said. "She's the one who would punish me."

"I want to be your friend," I reminded him. "I don't want you to get in trouble. Harry just needs to reassure you of some things." I paused. "You don't need to break rules to be 'cool', you know. Harry can probably break that to you."

Truthfully, I had just been looking for a reason to drop by.

"You should be proud," I told him. "A floo trip on your first day of classes. I do believe this must be a first." My fireplace was already lit, and I threw the floo powder into it. "Godric's Hollow, the Potter residence. Come, now!" I grabbed his arm and threw him into the fire alongside me. Then, it all came to me.

_"I've honestly tried to make you as happy as possible, Laura."_

_Harry and I were standing outside the Burrow. He and Ron had just finally become Aurors, and what had been a celebration was quickly turned to disaster upon my arrival._

_"No you haven't," I snapped at him. "I'm happy with you Harry. I'm not... I can't just go out with George, and it's not because of the ear like Ron suspects, it's because I dated him my fifth year when I was trying to make you jealous, Harry. What are you not understanding? I love you."_

_Thankfully, Ginny was not with us that night. She had been busy with a game._

_"That's too bad," Harry told me. "I'm not in love with you. You've tried to come between me and an engagement with my fiancée-"_

_"You all haven't helped one BIT!" I yelled, whining a bit. I knew I was wrong deep down inside but I couldn't leave myself vulnerable and awkward. "Harry, I can't stop loving you and you're trying to make me. You haven't even tried Harry, you haven't tried to reconsider your feelings and all of your little blind dates have hated me because they think I'm some spoiled little shit!"_

_"That Quidditch player from Australia I introduced you to fancied you just fine..." Hermione butted in. She, Ron, George, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting in chairs, watching Harry and me fight on our feet._

_"I'm not talking to you, bitch!" I said._

_"Don't talk to her like that!" Ron fumed, jumping up. Hermione stuck her nose in the air and turned away from me._

_"I'll talk to her any way I see fit, Ronald."_

_"Not if I have anything to do with it, you..."_

_I never knew what Ron called me that night, because the next thing I knew I fell to the ground (on my knees, like I would eventually do in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom) and was weeping. Through teary eyes and incomprehensible speech, I said, "I fucking want to be loved, that's all, and I know that I sound like a little shit, I know it, but George or some Quidditch player doesn't cut it. No one will listen to me!"_

_"It's you who won't listen to us!" Harry cut in. "Stop your crying. It's all fake, we know it."_

_"It's not fake!"_

_"That's a bunch of rubbish," Ron laughed._

_"Shut the fuck up!" I screeched. I drew my wand. "Sectumsempra!" Ron's arm busted open with blood pouring out every which way._

_"What the FUCK!" Ron howled._

_"Get out of here!" Mr. Weasley said, jumping to his feet._

_"What's wrong with you?" Harry spat, while Hermione and Mrs. Weasley rushed to Ron's side. All I did was sob. George walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug._

_"Stop this Laura," he whispered into my ear. "I've been willing to give you my love for ages now, I thought that's what you wanted."_

_"You're not Harry," I cried softly._

_"But Harry-"_

_"Harry doesn't understand," I said._

_"I understand just fine, Laura!"_

_"I don't find it a surprise Laura, that of everyone here the person who has amounted to the least in their life is you!" Hermione shouted at me, ripping George off of me. "We can't help you pull your life together if you don't want us to. You haven't got a job, you can't get over Harry, and you're attacking your friends now? It's no use anymore. You're beyond help!"_

_There was a long silence._

_I sat on the ground in that silence._

_Everyone had their eyes on me._

_And eventually, I imagine it was anywhere between 20 minutes and 60 minutes of sitting there, I had taken everything in. So I stood up, and I walked away from Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, George, the Burrow, and everything else my life had once contained._

_I never saw any of them again._

He wasn't home. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ginny in the next room, and beside her was a young boy peering over a basket. In the basket lay another child, though considerably younger. Ginny was pregnant (quite far along, too). Immediately I felt a surge of puke rushing up. My eyes were tearing in disgust. Teddy looked at me as though I might have been mentally ill.

Ginny looked rather good for a fat woman. It probably didn't hurt that the clothes she wore fit her nicely, rather than dressing like Hermione had when she'd been pregnant (I had seen pictures of her and they were not very satisfying on the eyes). My eyes were of course drawn to her hand, where an obnoxiously large and shiny diamond ring was placed on her finger.

Age hadn't disagreed with me much, but Ginny seemed to have no problems with it. Her face was clear and smooth, and I wondered to myself whether or not Ginny had used a spell to vanish any deformities from her face. She also seemed to have strong legs, they were muscled all the way down. It was very unlike my own. I had always been a scrawny, skinny person and I had chicken legs. If I had been unattractive, I may have been jealous, but I was quite content with the way I looked, no matter how vain that may sound.

"Let's get out of here," I hissed. It was too late, though. The older boy looked curiously in my direction.

"TEDDY!" he screamed, running over to him. Ginny, looking alarmed, stood up and waddled behind him. "Mum, Teddy is here!"

Ginny came in through the doorway and was frozen solid. Her eyes met mine, and they locked into place. It was a staring match to end all staring matches, and Teddy watched us in silence while the other boy looked like he was dying to speak.

"Go in the other room, James," Ginny said quietly. James quickly obeyed her. She muttered an incantation over the door and shut it behind him. "Teddy, floo back to school."

"But we-"

"No, do what she says," I interrupted.

Once he disappeared into the fireplace, Ginny exploded.

"What in the bloody _hell_ do you think you're doing here?" she demanded to know. I opened my mouth, but she refused to let me answer. "No, don't answer that. You're to leave, immediately!"

"I came to talk to Harry," I said.

"Well isn't that just perfect?" Ginny laughed. "Harry doesn't want to see you, and he's not here anyway. He is an auror though, and if you don't leave I can only imagine what will happen to you."

"Oh, I will if you take the broomstick out of your arse," I retorted quickly, rolling my eyes.

"You cannot say that to me in my-"

I drew my wand and pointed it at her throat. "I can say whatever I please, wherever I please, Ginerva." There was a long pause as my hand trembled in front of her. I probably couldn't hurt her.

"Laura," she sighed. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing," I told her. "I've been like this since my third year. I've been in love since my third year and no one's given a fucking shit about it! No, don't speak, don't mention your brother or that Quidditch player or some man you thought would get me out of a slump, don't bother, Ginny! I have to actually care for someone."

"You had no problem dating Seamus or George in your fifth year-"

"Oh, I was _fifteen_," I said. "Fifteen, and if I'm not mistaken, that same year you were pouncing upon any boy that would walk past you."

She couldn't seem to disagree with that.

"Ginny, for the past six years I haven't had anyone," I said.

"And for good reason."

"I can't control my emotions, I've always been hotheaded. No one... no one gave me a chance to apologize."

Ginny sighed, and explained, "You used the dark arts on Ron and basically told Hermione to go fuck herself."

"Yeah, well she's always been a prat," I muttered.

"Laura, why are you here?"

I was sure that she knew the answer.

"Teddy was acting up in class," was my response. "I... he was just being..." I sighed. "I thought that Harry might be able to send him down the right path." Ginny looked at me, disbelievingly.

"Hermione told me you'd gotten the Defense Against the Dark Arts post..."

"Yes, well McGonagall hadn't taken a well liking to Headmistress and once Nigel had settled on early retirement, she did a bit of a switcharoo."

Nigel Williams was a middle aged fraud who had only been more qualified than Gilderoy Lockheart. He would likely have been dismissed had he not gone out with some dignity left. Minerva McGonagall immediately decided to rush back to her Transfiguration post, which I had taken over: and rather affectively, too. I was the best Transfiguration student in the entire school by my 5th year in Hogwarts, and I had been planning on taking a test to become an Animagus. In the process, she had given me the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, which I had never particularly excelled in but was qualified enough to teach.

"I guess I'll come back later then," I said after a long silence.

"Don't bother," Ginny said. Rather brutally. "I'm going to floo-proof the fireplace."

I sighed. "Like that'll stop me. Bye, Ginny."

"Wait," Ginny urged. "I'm serious, don't come back Laura. Harry _really_ doesn't want to see you ever again. All of the Weasleys have sort of decided that they miss you, but... Harry just doesn't. Here." She handed me a letter, but not before scribbling a part of it out.

_Ginny,_

_Minerva wrote to me earlier and she said that if I don't care to see Laura Corrigan, I should probably leave home for a couple of days starting when Teddy begins school. It is likely that she will scapegoat any sort of misbehavior he displays into visiting me. I'll be at CROSSOUT for about a week. I think it's best you don't mention to James why I've gone or he'll beg to come with me. Or worse: I'll have to explain to him who Laura is._

I felt a pile of vomit rocketing up my throat and I clutched onto the nearby desk to keep my balance. The letter dropped onto the ground, under the kitchen table. Ginny began to speak, but none of it registered with me. Had McGonagall really...

_Warned_ Harry that I may be visiting? Had she been protecting everyone from "me", as if I were some sort of deadly virus? The worst of it all, though, was the fact that Harry had been so ashamed by me... something I had apparently done, to upset or embarrass him. He was hiding _me_ from his children. And yet my feelings for him were still so strong...

"Laura-"

"No," I told her. My voice was high-pitched and my Welsh accent was now blazing out, I couldn't control it. I had worked on getting rid of it, but it was no use once I was flustered. "If Harry doesn't want me here then I... I won't be returning. If he doesn't want me here then fine, I won't come, it doesn't matter, _honestly_. I was honestly fucking doing it for Teddy Lupin's good, and I know you don't fucking believe me but I really was, Ginny! I don't want him down the wrong path and god fucking forbid I wanted to knock some sense into him with someone who he really likes." Ginny was staring at me, neither moving nor speaking.

I looked around the room frantically. I was panicking.

"Laura, I-"

"No, where the FUCK is the floo powder?" I said, breathing deep breaths. She pointed at the desk I was leaning on, and I poured the entire goblet into the fire. "Hogwarts, Laura Corrigan's office!"

_"Oh really?" I said. "I'm from Gwynedd. Northwest Wales. I thought the car ride to London was just murder, personally."_

_It wasn't the first time we'd met, but the first time we'd had a real conversation. Normally we would talk about the house cup, or homework, or occasionally I would be partnered with Hermione in class, but I had never sat down and had a personal conversation with any of the three friends._

_"And your mum's a witch?" Ron asked._

_"Yes, she's told me my father is too but of course she could lying," I replied. "She didn't even tell me about a father until I had figured out where babies come from..."_

_I took a chocolate frog from Ron's lap and chewed off its head. Next to me lay the sleeping Remus Lupin, who I thought smelled of Chardonnay at the time, but it was more likely the potion that had given off the scent._

_"Are you sure that Lavender and Parvati don't mind you sitting with us?" Hermione inquired._

_"No, we're not really speaking right now," I said. "Something about how I was treating Sea-" I cut off quickly, but Hermione seemed very interested._

_"Oh, what about Seamus?"_

_I hesitated before answering._

_"She sort of fancies him, nothing surprising to be honest. She thought I was flirting with him on the platform."_

_"Were you?" Harry asked._

_"No," I said immediately, so that they all laughed. My face was red. "I guess I don't have anything to do on the weekends now though..."_

_"You're always welcome to come hang out with us," Harry suggested. My eyes lit up. It was the invitation I had been hoping to receive._

_"Oh really? I wouldn't want to intrude."_

_"No, it's fine," Hermione smiled. Ron didn't speak, he was focusing on devouring another chocolate frog._

_"Oh gosh, now I don't have to sit with Neville all the time," I laughed. They gave a forced chuckle, and I sensed the awkwardness. "Not that I don't like Neville, but... I don't think we click." The three nodded._

_That was when the trained stopped, and suddenly the compartment got very cold. And I think that what happened next is rather infamous._

I glanced at my watch, and muttered, "Shit!" I ran out of my office and into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where a combination of Gryffindors and Slytherins were once against sitting. They all looked positively bored. They had been waiting for three minutes. They were my fifth year O.W.L students.

"I'm sorry," I said, brushing past a Slytherin girl who snickered at my black cloak. I had failed to mask my accent once more.

"You're Welsh, Professor Corrigan?" a Gryffindor girl asked. Five years they'd had me, and I'd never slipped up.

"Yes, I am," I said. Not that it mattered, but I had always found my Welsh origin to be a distraction to people. Ever since my sixth year I had decided to cover it over with a more Northern English dialect. "Wands away, textbooks out." Groans, many of them. Most hadn't bothered to put the wands away, but left them lying down while they searched for their book. "I said wands away!"

They all looked frightened.

"Bad day, Professor Corrigan?"

"Honestly," I said. "You don't know the half of it. Page four, start reading."

I could hear the whispers of the students as though they were shouting.

"It looks like she's been sobbing."

"She's got those dark bags under her eyes."

"I fancied her my second year, but now she looks miserable."

I looked idly at my fingers, trying to ignore to nagging comments on my appearance. It wasn't long before a certain student had caught my attention, however.

"Yeah, my cousin said that Harry Potter talks about her all the time."

I concealed a large gasp with a fit of coughs.

"I'll be right back," I announced, and some of the girls in Gryffindor looked on in horror as I greatly exaggerated my coughs to be louder and louder, growing more serious with every step I took. I exited the classroom and stood still in the corridors, ceasing my coughing.

_Yeah, my cousin said that Harry Potter talks about her all the time..._ rang through my mind._ So, he talks about me all the time? What has he been saying? Perhaps he still loves me... or I suppose he never did. But perhaps he has realized his affection for me? Or maybe he just has a laugh at how insane he finds me._

My hands were trembling again, and I was breathing heavily.

_Don't do it, Laura. Not here._

_What would it be like, a tiger walking into class? Maybe the size can be adjusted... a cub may pass as a kitten..._

_Don't do it, Laura!_

But it was too late, before my mind could protest any further I felt a thick coat of fur cover my face and body, and I was shrinking in size. I was on all fours, and I glanced around the corridor to find no one. I turned around and realized that the door was closed. Not knowing if I could pass off strolling into the classroom, I decided to take the risk.

"Meow."

_Fuck!_

Wandless magic was never my strong point, let alone casting a spell without saying incantations. I went over the spell in my mind dozens of times, with my eyes tightly shut. Thirty or so seconds had passed, and when I opened my eyes, I had managed to creek the door open a small bit.

I wiggled my way through the door and into the classroom. I wasn't surprised to find just one student reading the chapter I had assigned, while the others had decided upon gossiping at high speed.

"Oh, what a peculiar cat!" a Slytherin girl shouted, and she and group of girls rushed over and picked me up. They dragged me over to their seat, but I needed to get over to the Scottish Gryffindor boy whose cousin knew Harry Potter. I violently hissed at the girls and swept my claws at them. They screamed and dropped me butt-first on the cold ground. I scurried away, and climbed onto the lap of the Gryffindor boy. He stroked me quite uncomfortably.

"Well he knows because his dad is Oliver Wood, from Puddlemere United. Sometimes Potter and Wood would meet up for lunch with Ron Weasley, the auror friend, and Potter's wife would come along too and they'd talk Quidditch and all that nonsense, and Professor Corrigan was a hot topic. He said it was weird though, because Harry Potter would go all quiet when she was mentioned, whereas Weasley and Potter's wife would have a laugh about her."

"Why?"

"Well she's psycho or something he told me. Potter's wife was livid when she'd heard that Corrigan was switched to Defense Against the Dark Arts, said that Corrigan's a dark witch if she ever saw one."

I dug my claws deeply into the boy's legs, and he yelped in pain.

"Feck!" he cried, and he too threw me onto the ground. I yowled and scurried out of the classroom with haste. To my horror, the corridor was now crowded with a few wandering students curiously watching Filch chase Peeves around in circles. Peeves was holding Mrs. Norris up by her tail. Mrs. Norris locked her eyes on me while hanging upside down and spinning in the air. She attempted to meow but her mouth was tightly shut by Peeves' free hand.

I trotted into an empty classroom an retransformed into my human self. I heaved a deep sigh and fixed my hair so that it now fell down rather than stayed up like it had before.

I returned to class to a deep silence. Everyone's eyes were on me.

"I know you all could not have read thirty pages already," I said breathlessly, and only just louder than a whisper. The students' heads were planted right back into their books.

The next class had only Ravenclaw seventh years. It was the largest N.E.W.T class I had ever seen. The entire year had to have been taking it.

"Oh my gosh Professor Corrigan, I'm so happy that Williams isn't back this year!" a bubbly, big-breasted girl exclaimed once class started. "He was a pervert, always looking at me and winking." I nodded my head, not listening. My thoughts were scattered across the events of the day.

"Do you take me as obsessive?" I asked the class. They seemed alarmed.

"Obsessive?" the big-breasted girl laughed. "You're strict but no where near as obsessive as Slughorn was during our O.W.L year."

"Yeah, I'd say that you're quite normal compared to the other professors come exam time," an Irish boy said.

_They've obviously misunderstood me._

"Thank you for the reassurance, then," I said. Class ended an hour later on a monotonous note. Not knowing what I was even planning to teach the next lesson, I assigned them two rolls of parchment on their expectations of their Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T.S. It hadn't occurred to me yet, not since the first class of the day at least, that many students had been at least expecting to practice defensive spells rather than read up on the history of the Dark Arts.

I spent the rest of the day in the staff room having a cup of tea with Professor Carter, the Muggle Studies teacher who was the only instructor left who was roughly the same age as me. He was burly and good looking, I remembered him as a Hufflepuff who as either in my year or a year younger than I. I did not care, either way. He had always followed around Cedric Diggory, at least until Cedric's sixth year...

"Have you heard that Madam Hooch resigned?" he asked me.

"I vaguely remember hearing Hestia mention it," I replied dully. Hestia Jones was the new Headmistress, though not my first pick to lead the school with what little experience she had as an educator.

"Guess who they've replaced her with?"

His voice seemed as though what was about to come out would interest me, so I gave him my attention.

"Who?" I asked.

"George Weasley."

Out of all the things that had happened on my first day as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, that was probably the last thing I had been hoping to hear.


	2. Boys, Boys, Boys

**A/N:** Here's Chapter 2. Enjoy! Reviews would be lovely. Very lovely. If you're actually reading, and actually like it, I may actually write faster if you were to post a simple comment/criticism :o! I would like to take this time to warn you that I'm dreadful at intimate scenes, no matter how mild or raunchy they may become.

**Boys, Boys, Boys**

"You haven't been making eye contact with me at all, Professor Corrigan," I heard from behind me. I hurried up along the corridor, beginning to speed walk

I could hear his feet behind my own, so I decided to turn into the nearest classroom. I forcefully slammed the door behind me and locked it. In relief, I sunk down onto my butt and gave a large sigh.

"Alohomora," I heard.

_Fuck!_ I thought. _Stupid, careless!_

More memories started to fill in...

_"I'm not going to talk to Harry unless he apologizes to me first."_

_George was staring at me in a mix of disbelief and hesitation._

_"But you were sort of wrong, Laura."_

_"Well I was dating Seamus at the time and he knew that!" I said. "He was awfully rude to Seamus and then was rude to me by association. I never said I didn't believe his Cedric story, only that I stand by Seamus because that's what a faithful person does."_

_George was now testing another of his vomiting candies on a first year, which I had reluctantly agreed to try but backed out of at the last second. Fred was standing over him._

_"Well you can't keep fighting like this," George sighed._

_"I can and I will," I decided. "Harry's biggest problem is that his point of view is so clouded by his air of superiority. Oooh, I'm the boy who lived!"_

_"You sound like a Slytherin," George and Fred mumbled together._

_"I don't mean to but it's true, boys."_

_The first year hacked up his lunch into the bucket that Fred laid out beside him. He attracted the attention of the entire common room. Lavender was squealing with disgust._

_"Now take this," George prodded, opening the boy's handing and closing a pill inside of it._

_"How do you expect them to take the remedy when it's clear that they can't stop puking?" I asked._

_"The puking stops for a minute or two eventually, then it goes on," Fred explained._

_"You're both sickening," I sighed. I stood up and took a seat next to Parvati and Lavender, both of whom were deep in conversation about their Divination homework. "How's Seamus, Lavender?"_

_"Huh? Oh, you startled me. He's fine, I think he still fancies you Laura. Our relationship isn't built to last."_

_"How sad," I said lifelessly. "And who is that second year you're dating, Parvati?"_

_"He's a fourth year..." she blushed. "His name's Colin."_

_I thought for a moment, and asked, "Creevey?"_

_"Gosh no, what kind of girl do you think I am?" Parvati near shrieked. Lavender giggled along with me. "He's a Ravenclaw, Padma introduced us. Colin Grey."_

_"Oh, I do know him!" I exclaimed. "He took that girl Marietta to the Yule Ball."_

_"He likes his older woman," Lavender pointed out._

_"Oh, shut up," Parvati said. "You're dating someone two years older than yourself, Laura!"_

_"It's quite different when one's actually got hair on his-"_

_I was interrupted by Ginny Weasley, who whispered something into my ear. She told me that Harry had wanted to speak with me. My eyes lit up._

_"I'll be back!" I said excitedly to the girls and I lifted myself up._

_"By the looks of it, she's going to talk with Harry," I heard Parvati hiss to Lavender, who was likely nodding ferociously. I paid no attention and merely followed Ginny up the staircase leading into the boys' dormitory. It was a sickly room, with an oder worse than the Quidditch changing rooms after a rough match._

_"Hi Harry," I said once Ginny had left the two of us alone. We were sitting on his bed._

_"Hi Laura. I really want to put this whole thing beside us now, because I think Seamus has finally come to his senses."_

_"Oh, thank goodness," I sighed._

_"So if you'll just apologize then we can put the matter aside completely." My face began to heat up. My mind was telling me to just say sorry, say that I was stupid, but I was unwilling to completely throw away my integrity._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"I don't think I've given you ample opportunity, and now I'm giving you your chance to redeem yourself," Harry said._

_My eyes were locked upon his._

_"That's fucking crazy!"_

_"Hey, don't raise your voice at me, Laura!"_

_"You're fucking insane, Harry!"_

_"I-"_

_"Harry, I have never doubted what you've said and I will not apologize for sticking by a boy that I was seeing."_

_"You could have defended me when you talked to him!" he shouted._

_"Who's to say I didn't?" I asked. Of course, I really hadn't, but what Harry didn't know couldn't hurt him._

_"What?" he replied._

_"Of course I tried to convince Seamus that you're not loony," I told him, in a more calm voice. "But I can't force him to believe anything."_

_"So you have been trying to knock some sense into him this whole time?"_

_"Of course!" I said a little bit too unconvincingly. He didn't seem to notice._

_We sat in awkward silence, with only him saying "Oh, sorry then..."_

_He had said it. Sorry! Harry Potter had apologized to me. Sure I had had to lie to him in order for him to finally do so... but it was beside the point._

_Suddenly I felt his hand tightly grasp my forearm. He squeezed it tightly and used his free hand to shove me down onto the bed. I was certain I was about to be raped, or beaten, or likely both. Had he known I was lying? I opened my mouth to speak, but to my surprise my words were blocked by a plunging tongue._

_I'd have gasped if my mouth had any room to. Harry's lips were fiercely pecking at my own. He wasn't near as good a kisser as George but there was certainly a quality that George lacked in Harry's kiss. His tongue was rapidly massaging mine._

_My hands struggled from underneath his stomach and I used them to pull his face even further into my own, if that was at all possible. My body was released from his hands and he slid them down to my buttocks. Sweat trickled down my face and I could have sworn I had discovered exactly what it would feel like for heaven's gates to open for the first time, when-_

_Neville opened the door. He was holding some plant from Herbology, but not for long as he aptly dropped it. Harry released his mouth and looked up sharply at Neville._

_"I... I'm sorry, Harry, oh, and Laura," he said nervously, gathering the remains of his shattered plant. "I'll just pretend I didn't see you, honest." He shut the door. I clutched my head in my hands. Harry grabbed his wand and pointed at the door._

_"Colloportus!"_

_In a little less than a millisecond I found my mouth being entered once again by the tongue of the boy who lived._

The door swung open, and since I had been sitting down very near it, I flew onto the ground.

_Dammit, Colloportus, that was it,_ I thought.

I looked up at the intruding figure, and it was George Weasley who met my gaze. He pulled me up and gave me an obnoxious kiss on the cheek.

"It's great to see you again, Laura Corrigan," he grinned.

"Given up the joke shop, have you?" I said weakly. The door had hurt me quite a bit.

"Not at all," George said. "I hardly get any customers from September to June so I left the store to Penelope for autumn, winter, and spring. She's a freak when it comes to business."

"Flattering," I said.

"What else can you expect from someone who marries Percy?" he laughed. I didn't join in.

"I've been avoiding you for a reason, you know," I told him.

"Yes, do you care to divulge on this reasoning of yours?" George replied.

"I've just been informed by your sister the other day that everyone _still_ hates me," I explained, releasing myself from George's grip and wiping dust off of my cloak. "Excuse me if I'm a bit reluctant to see what you've got in store for me."

"Nobody hates you, Laura," George said seriously. "I, for one-"

"Do you love me?" I asked, with a chuckle reminiscent of Umbridge's.

"I... not necessarily, but I still do have feelings for you Laura," he continued.

"Last I heard you were married, George Weasley," I said. "Not very good of you."

"I think that Luna told you that because she figured you would come after me if I was still single."

I laughed and said, "Oh, that's exactly what I would've done. Good old Luna, still batshit fucking crazy."

George frowned at me. "Not cool." I rolled my eyes.

I left him alone in the abandoned classroom, only then realizing where I had been meaning to go in the first place. It was noon on the sunniest Saturday of the year, and I had written to Cho Chang the day before about meeting her in The Three Broomsticks.

I transformed my walk into a hasted run but I knew I was already bound to be five minutes late. I tried to come to a halt at an ugly one-eyed statue but instead my feet refused to remain still and I slid uncomfortably into a very handsome sixth year boy. His head had slammed against my breasts. He was quite a built fellow so upon our collision I slammed against the floor.

"Ug," I moaned, trying to push myself up but finding my left shoulder close to useless. He offered his hand, but I pushed it away. It was then that I realized who the boy was.

"Oh, Mr. Blanche, I'm sorry about that," I apologized. Dozens of eyes had witnessed our collision and the owners of those eyes seemed to find humor in the situation. I wasn't laughing.

Gerard Blanche was a French student who I absolutely despised. He had studied abroad at Hogwarts since his fourth year and was not sorted by the same means as the other students. He was conveniently placed in his house of choice, which had been Gryffindor. Gryffindor hadn't lost the House Cup for five straight years.

"It eez, okay," he said, and I scoffed silently at his seductive accent. "May I ezcort you to ze 'ospital wing?"

"No, Gerard, I'm alright," I said. He was eying me with a sense of lust. "Get to class, everyone."

"It eez, uh, Saturday Madame Corrigan," he told me, which explained the uncomfortable looks of the students in the corridor.

"What? Oh, well uh, go about your business, everyone. Thank you Gerard, but I am fine."

"Alright, I shall... see you in class, then?"

"Yes, now be off."

I watched Gerard and the others file out into the nearest courtyard and I turned around to see the one-eyed statue. I bit my lip nervously.

_Oh, it's worth a shot._

I hadn't used the passages that the Marauder's Map had taught me since my last year in Hogwarts. Filch had spread rumors of the passages being sealed off entirely, but I knew my way around even his seals well enough to enter Hogsmeade from inside the castle.

By the time I emerged from the ground and into cellar of the candy shop, my hair was tainted with dust and spider webs. I magically remedied the disaster and left the candy shop from its back door.

Hogsmeade was crowded that Saturday, there were several women crowding around the bookshop for a new autobiography on Neville Longbottom, who had become quite an infamous man in the Herbology world for discovering a sell-nurturing technique for the dangerous Devil's Snare. It was peculiar how such an uninteresting and uneventful discovery led to his outbreak as a sex symbol, and how much his confidence had raised since he drew a sword from a hat eleven years before.

The Three Broomsticks was relatively empty aside from a group of elderly witches huddled in a corner, Professor Carter and some other men talking rather loudly at the bar, and then Cho Chang sitting in a booth while glancing out the window.

"Hello," I said as kindly as I could, planting a kiss on her cheek. She slid me a firewhisky. "Thank you."

"It's never too early for one," she winked. "I hope you don't mind that I've invited someone to join us today."

"Who?" I asked.

"You'll see."

I sipped my firewhisky and said, "Have you heard who the new Flying professor is?"

"No," Cho answered after thinking the question over for a bit. "I heard that Hooch had resigned though."

"George Weasley," I told her bitterly.

"Get out!" she gasped. "Get _out!_"

"That was my reaction," I muttered, taking another sip of firewhisky. "Exactly what I fucking need to start off the year."

"Tell me about it. Hey, is that Liam Carter?"

"Yeah, that's his name I think," I answered dully. She was beaming in his direction, though he was too invested in telling his fellow blokes a seemingly exhilarating tale. "Oh, Cho. You're not still stuck on Cedric are you?"

"I know, it was 14 years ago," she sighed. "Can you believe that? 14 years."

"What I can't believe is how that man who just walked in wasn't sent to Azkaban for wearing that atrocious bowler hat."

To my astonishment, however, Cho was smiling (acting as though she hadn't heard what I had said) and waving the man over to us. I widened my eyes and gave her a deep glare, but she ignored me once more. "Over here!"

The man approached us and I quickly turned my back on in so that I was facing Cho inside the booth. He sat down beside Cho, grabbed her face, and planted a kiss firmly on her mouth. She squealed in either pain or pleasure, most likely the latter. He eventually lifted his face off of her, removed his bowler hat, and took a butterbeer from the incoming server.

"You remember Oliver Wood, Laura?" Cho asked.

His eyes met mine, and I fought fiercely to keep them from bulging out of my sockets.

"Yes, I do."

"Pleased to see you again, Laura," he grinned, extending his hand.

"Likewise," I said, hesitantly giving him my hand and letting him shake it up and down for a few moments. "I'm sorry, I may be mistaken, but aren't you married?"

"Me?" he asked.

I sarcastically looked around the booth to see if anyone else was sitting there, and then replied, "Yes, you."

"I'm in the process of getting it annulled," he said. "Found her in bed with the Chief Editor of the _Prophet_ and I told her we were finished. Then I turned to Cho here for comfort and support." He put his arm around her.

"Charming."

"Isn't he?" Cho said, thoroughly enjoying snuggling beside the Quidditch player. "I'm sure he could introduce you to some international players-"

"I sick of Quidditch players!" I grunted. "Every fucking guy I've hooked up with has played Quidditch. George Weasley, Roger Davies, Hermione's friend from Australia, Harry Potter- oh shit."

Oliver and Cho looked equally as shocked as I clasped my hands over my mouth.

"When did you hook up with Harry?" she asked.

"Uhm," I said, thinking up something to say. "Actually never, that was a joke."

"You're a bad liar," Cho hissed.

"No really, I was thinking of Seamus and then I realized he didn't even play Quidditch. How is Seamus, anyway?"

"You're such a liar, Laura!"

"Last I heard Katie Bell's older brother made him switch Quidditch teams, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, really?" I asked. I had already known that Seamus turned gay after he left Hogwarts through a reliable gossip circle (something that likely had to do with having dated such anal girls as me and Lavender in such a short period of time), but I was searching for conversation.

"_Laura!_" Cho yelled, and she threw me aside, reached across the table, and slapped my arm.

"God dammit Cho, it was a long long time ago," I yelled back.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were still-" _Dating him._ "-trying to get over Cedric and I didn't want to upset you with getting it on with the boy you fancied!"

Cho sighed. "That's so _scandalous._"

"I really hate you right now."

_"I hate her!" I shouted, throwing my book against the wall. "Fuck her! Fuck her and the broomstick she flew in on!"_

_"It's alright, Laura," Parvati said sadly, with her arm around me._

_"Who does she think she is?" I continued shouting. "Fucking thestral-faced little bitch!"_

_"Calm down," Hermione said, trying to comfort me as well. "I don't think she even fancies Harry. He's got a little crush on her is all."_

_"One little glance at her and she thinks that he's in love with her!" I was ignoring Hermione and Parvati. Lavender was there as well, though she seemed to be agreeing with me. "Who IS she? I could... I could just smash her!" I grabbed the tissue box next to me and flattened it with my hands._

_Cho Chang had just smiled at Harry in the hallway, a seductive-looking smile whose purpose seemed to be to get him to ask her out. She had lowered her head while she was walking, focused her eyes on only him, and gave a faint, closed-mouth grin._

_"Slut!"_

_"You don't even know her that well, Laura," Hermione tried to reason._

_"Why does she need a third year anyway, no one her age wants to have a go with her? I wonder why."_

_"You're right," Lavender nodded._

_"Maybe if we work on the Arithmancy homework, Laura, it'll get your mind off of-"_

_"And who is that whore who walks behind her all the time, the nasty-looking curly haired one?" I asked. "She's always whispering in Cho's ear and giving Harry the evil eye, like he's 'not good enough for her'."_

_"That's Marietta Edgecomb," Lavender responded. "All of the Ravenclaws hate her, don't worry._

_"Good," I sighed._

_"Cho's rather popular, though," Parvati said unhelpfully. I moaned. She paused. "I know this may sound crazy, Laura... but you could just ask him out..."_

_"That's gross, girls don't ask boys out!" Lavender shrieked._

_"Oh, please," Parvati giggled. "I wouldn't just wait around for a boy to ask me out and only have Neville approach me." Hermione frowned._

_"Back to me!" I begged. "What am I going to do?"_

_"You could try out for Quidditch next year," Parvati suggested. "Wood's leaving."_

_"You know I'm lousy on a broomstick."_

_"You could have study sessions with him," Hermione suggested._

_"Yeah, that'll bring us closer together. Right."_

_"Oh, oh!" Lavender beamed with excitement. "You could tutor him on cloth-vanishing charms, he's wretched at those!"_

_"That sounds a bit naughty," Parvati giggled._

_"That's perfect!" I grinned. "It'll be real easy then."_

_"Didn't I just say-"_

_"Thanks, Lavender," I said, cutting Hermione off. She rolled her eyes, which I caught in my peripheral vision while motioning to hug Lavender. "Let's see Cho teach him a thing or two about Transfiguration."_

The rest of our day together was comprised of short snogging sessions between Oliver and Cho, both who whom seemed to forget I was sitting there, then later a short trip to Gladrags Wizardwear, and finally Cho forced us to step into Dervish and Banges to see if her Remembrall order had come in.

"I order it a week ago," Cho fumed, stepping outside after what she said was her third shut down. "How can they be out of stock for a week?"

The three of us then made a hike up to the station, though it was still bright out it had felt like the day had gone on too long with the awkwardness of Oliver Wood being there. I felt as though I couldn't speak freely.

"Goodbye," I said, giving Cho a kiss on the cheek. I moved to do the same to Oliver, but I thought better of it and simply gave him a handshake. "Tell your wife I said hi. Or... don't."

"Will do," he replied, laughing.

"I don't believe it. Wood?"

I groaned a little too loudly, and turned around. George Weasley was panting and looked like he had been sprinting to catch up with us.

"Oh that's right!" Cho perked up. "You told me he was the new Flying teacher, Laura."

"George?" Oliver said loudly, a huge grin on his face. George embraced his former Quidditch captain and received the same affection in return. I looked away.

"What are you doing here?" George asked.

"Just came down with Cho here, she wanted to see Laura," Oliver told him. I felt George's eyes watching over me.

"I'm not allowed to talk to Laura," George whispered loud enough so that I could hear it. Oliver immediately inquired the reason. "You'll have to ask her."

"Don't," Cho whispered to Oliver quickly, and though her whisper was considerably quieter, I had still picked it up.

"Why don't you come to dinner with us next weekend?" George asked. "I'm taking the weekend off to see Harry, my mum and dad, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Percy, and Bill and Charlie. They would love to see you and Charlotte come, Ginny just popped another one out, so did Hermione."

"I'd love to," Oliver said. "Sans Charlotte, of course." He recounted his annulment plans with George, and how he had moved on to Cho, much to the annoyance of myself.

"That's too bad," George frowned. "But I'll see you at the Burrow around 4 next Saturday then? We can arrange a room if you want."

"Definitely," Oliver grinned.

"And you too, Cho?" George asked.

"I suppose so," she nodded. "There's the train, Oliver."

"Thanks a lot George, see you Saturday!" Oliver said hurriedly, while he and Cho made an unwarranted dash for the soon-departing train.

I walked back up to the castle with George Weasley not far behind me. Luckily, he hadn't been saying anything to me until we reached the entrance.

"How was your day?"

I looked at him and murmured an inaudible, gibberish response.

"Good, good."

I took off in a completely random corridor and heard him follow me down it. Another right turn led me to the kitchens, in which case the House Elves eyed me with dazed looks on their dirty faces.

"Going to the Hufflepuff Common Room, are you?" George asked.

"As a matter of fact, I was just going to get myself a snack," I lied, and I picked up an uncooked piece of beef floating towards the oven, and then shoved it inside my bag.

"Mind if I join you then?" George asked, snatching his own floating beef.

Insulted, I hissed, "_Yes._ I do mind!"

The nearest House Elf jumped onto George's arm and tore the uncooked beef from his grasp. With a sort of daring look, he turned away and strode back to his normal position.

"I'd appreciate it if you just left me alone," I told him, taking the beef back out and throwing it into the garbage. I left him once again alone, hiking back to my quarters to read through early essays I had assigned.

Then I went to bed at around 7:00. I had skipped dinner.

But... then it hit me, like a fat bludger heading towards a comet-bound Chaser.

_"Why don't you come to dinner with us next weekend?" George asked. "I'm taking the weekend off to see Harry, my mum and dad, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Percy, and Bill and Charlie. They would love to see you and Charlotte come, Ginny just popped another one out, so did Hermione."_

"Seven days," I whispered to myself. "Seven days until the Burrow Bash..." I jolted from my bed into a stern upright position. I nearly smacked my head against a hanging lantern.

_"I still do have feelings for you Laura."_

"Oh my gosh," I continued. "Oh my gosh!" Why it hadn't struck me sooner, I had no idea. But my newest plan was about to get hatched. From experience I knew that Harry wasn't the loyal hero people had simply assumed him to be. He was not above cheating.

Nor was I.

If Oliver Wood, who George couldn't have seen in years, not with his living in London and Oliver in the most north of Scotland you can possibly get, could get invited to this gathering with a simple reappearance, it shouldn't be too hard for me to feign a relationship with George.

Then I could get invited!

"Bloody hell, it's genius," I told myself.

I jumped out of my bed, still dressed in my nightgown, and strode out of my room and into the corridor. Various students were mingling amongst themselves, some seemed pleased to see me in my nightgown, one that was quite translucent and shamelessly traced my pantie line and my ample breasts which were nestled tightly into my bra.

That September night was chilly, but I took no notice once I emerged from the castle and soon found myself sprinting towards the Quidditch pitch. I heard shouting even from several feet away, the captain of the Slytherin team was displeased with his Keeper's capability.

By the time the jagged rocks on the path to the pitch had come up, I suddenly wished that I had at least put on slippers for my run down. My feet were turning red, not from the frosty air, but from the widening cuts that the rocks left on them.

When I reached the pitch, I found George overlooking the Slytherin team's practice. They had been required to have George watch their practices when the wretched Hufflepuff captain (a slender, materialistic seventh year girl whose purpose in life seemed to be to have as much paranoia as a human can possibly suffer from) had accused them of stealing moves from the Hufflepuff team. Though I tried to stay out of house rivalries, being as unbiased as a Gryffindor alumni can be, I couldn't help but voice my concern whenever possible to suggest that the Hufflepuffs were trying instead to have the star players of Slytherin, suspected Dark Arts enthusiasts, kicked off the team.

"Why, if it isn't Professor Corrigan," George laughed, not turning his direct gaze towards me but very obviously eying my rather strange attire through his peripheral vision. "What brings you out here tonight?"

"I came to apologize," I lied, ignoring one of the chasers' vulgar comments on my breasts. "I've been really worked up about a few things lately." I paused, waiting for him to answer, but when he didn't, I continued. "You really have never done anything wrong to me, have you George?"

"Not that I recall, maybe a few cracks about your O.W.L grade in Astronomy that one time."

I had misspelled Jupiter as Poopiter, and received serious deductions.

"I'm such a prat," I whispered just loud enough for him to hear it.

"Yeah you are," he joked. Staring at him, under the moon, was quite interesting as a matter of fact. His muscles were more toned than I remembered, the Weasleys sans Bill had always been somewhat scrawny lads and he had a build that wasn't unlike Oliver's burly physique. It was light years beyond Harry's build.

I frowned at his comment, acting as though his words had affected me deeply. Upon noticing this, he finally turned towards me and said, "I would give you a hug- but I'm sort of not allowed. Not in front of the students." I sighed.

"A hug would probably be really useful, actually," I said. My petty romance talk was as immature as it was in my fifth and sixth year, when hormones had taken over once innocent students. The sadder thing about George's, however, was that his wasn't guarded by a façade of nasty plot, rather it was truly how he approached women.

"Well..." he hesitated, but after an awfully quick moment he motioned towards me and I find myself in an embrace. It wasn't a passionate one, nor even a consoling one. It moreso had the likeliness of the hugs Cho would give me when we would meet every few weeks in Hogsmeade. It was probably most appropriate, especially since the hissing comments of the Slytherin team overhead would likely be even worse had the hug been more affectionate.

When he let go, I flashed him a shy smile. He returned, but with less timidity and more pity.

"I'm always here to talk, Laura," George assured me.

"Thanks, I really think I need someone to talk to," I replied.

And so later that night, after the Quidditch team dispersed, we retired to his chambers. I made up a tale about my brother-in-law, how he had been trying to get with me for as long as I'd gotten the Transfiguration gig at Hogwarts, and how it had turned me off to men for a while.

"What a pig," was George's response to the fairy tale.

"Tell me about it."

An hour later, it was pitch dark out, and it was at least three quarters of a mile to the castle from George's cottage (which was not far from Hagrid's). At some point, he had asked, "What do you think of Teddy Lupin?"

I paused for a moment.

"What about him?"

"Well, what do you think of him?" George repeated.

"He's a sharp student I suppose, for a first year," I answered honestly. "He seems popular with the other students. A bit annoying though..."

"Don't tell anyone," George whispered. "But he is the only one in Flying class who hasn't managed to take off on their broom yet."

I stared at George, dumbfounded. Even _I_ had managed to fly during my first lesson. Teddy had to have had at least three by that time. Even Neville had managed it by at least his second attempt.

"You're joking," I decided.

"Nope, I swear," he laughed. "Really, don't tell anyone."

"No, I won't," I assured him. Who was I going to tell, anyway? The Slytherins? They'd likely been there at the time. "Don't the others make fun of him?"

"I made up something quick about how sometimes it takes longer for people like Veela or Metamorphagi to fly. It's untrue though. He's just... not good. There goes Harry's dream of his godson being a Quidditch star, eh?"

Harry. He had mentioned Harry so nonchalantly, as if he were an old acquaintance rather than a bitter ex-friend.

I froze, rethinking the odd statement.

_What the fuck?_ I thought. He saw the discomfort on my face and quickly said, "Oh, er, sorry."

I took a swig of firewhisky and told him, "No, it's alright. Whatever." I shrugged the comment off, but it was all I had thought about the rest of the night.

Which may have been why I never remembered agreeing to stay the night rather than hike up to the castle (I believe he had said, "It's a bit dangerous, Hagrid has been careless with the forest lately and who knows what might be crawling out there"), and why I never remembered agreeing to sleep in his bed rather than the spare in the adjacent room, and I why I never remembered agreeing to let the both of us strip down to our underwear in bed even though it had been the coldest night thus far of the year, and probably why I don't remember agreeing having sex with him that night. Either that, or it was the firewhisky taking its toll on me.


End file.
